A Deputy Chief Constable has defended his force after criticism from policing inspectorate over crime records

A DEPUTY Chief Constable has defended his force after a report by the policing inspectorate raised serious concerns over the way crime is recorded.

During the review period North Yorkshire Police was found to have recorded 56 crimes when there should have been 64.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said he accepted the issues raised but said he had a lot of confidence in the force’s crime recording.

He said: “The inspectorate agreed the shortfall in recorded crime was not manipulated but it was a problem in understanding how we categorise crime.

“We accept there are things we need to do and processes have already been put in place to make sure officers are aware of how to record crime properly.”

He said one of the difficulties was determining if a crime should be reported as a single crime or as multiple crimes.

For example, in a burglary of sheds in an allotment site, it may be unclear if the crime is classed as one burglary or several.

“We have a crime registrar who sits independently and she had a very different understanding of how this should be done to the inspectorate,” he said.

“There has been a level of doubt and we accept this – but it does not have an impact on the way we treat victims and listen to them as individuals. We want people to have the confidence to come forward and report a crime to us.”